Back to The Salt Mines

Tomorrow marks my first day back in the office, and a return to normal quotidian routine. There is probably not much to share from my working life that will be of common interest to my relatives, friends and colleagues. So, although I won't decommision this blog, I anticipate that the frequency of my posts will decrease dramatically. As a final thought from my time away from work, here's my reading list from the past five weeks. These are all good reading (although I'm still working on the last one).

• The Big Short, by Michael Lewis
• Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden
• Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
• Life, by Keith Richards

Back Home

After roughly a month, we're back home. In the big scheme of things a 29 day trip is not really very extraordinary, but it felt epic to me. We passed through parts of 8 different countries (9 if you count Vatican City), and managed to do it without the "if this is Tuesday, we must be in Italy" feel.

There are probably some profound insights to be had from all this, but none of them occur to me at the moment. This is from our last night, enjoying a good meal and one last German beer.

Prague

Prague is the last major stop on our trip, and it's a bit of an adjustment to be in a big city again, with the accompanying crowds and noise. This guy with the impressive mustache was playing jazz flute at the entrance to Prague Castle.

The Czechs seem to be big on St Vitus. There was a church of St Vitus in Cesky Krumlov, and this is the entrance to the St Vitus Cathedral in Prague. Construction started in 1344, and was completed in 1929. I took this photo mainly to allow me to make jokes about dancing.

You are Now Permitted to Have Fun

Going back a couple of days, after visiting Martha's cousin we spent two nights on the Wolfgangsee in Austria. This is actually a lake, one of several alpine lakes near Salzburg. It is a beautiful spot.

It seemed like we were the only non-Austrians in our hotel, and I was really struck by how quiet and orderly everything was even though it is clearly a resort town. It's the only place we have been where pedestrians uniformly wait for the walk light to illuminate before crossing the street. Even the town's wet t-shirt contest is very structured. They have a contest, but only on one specified day all summer.

For anyone planning to be in Austria on Aug 18th, more details are at http://www.stwolfgang.at/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=3&Itemid=89

Cesky Krumlov

Today we are in Cesky Krumlov, second most popular destination in the Czech Republic and a great bargain. Dinner for two of us last night was 500 Koruna (about $25), including lots of good Czech beer. This is the main square in the old town.

Here's the view from the castle across the river to the old town.

The World is Flat

A couple of years ago I read Thomas Friedman's book on globalization, The World is Flat. Its core argument was that the world is effectively becoming a smaller place, and that geographic boundaries are less significant than they once were. I have two observations from our travels in Europe that support this, based on changes since I first spent time here when I was in university.

Not that many years ago, Europeans largely owned cars built by their own automakers - French drove Renaults, Peugeots, and Citroens, Italians drove Fiats, and Germans in particular drove German cars. Now it seems that anywhere in Europe one sees almost any brand of European car (but still far fewer Japanese cars than we are accustomed to in North America).

The other significant change I have noted is that a former distinction in women's fashion between Europe and North America has disappeared. At some point in the past couple of decades, European women have started to shave their underarms. I was teasing Martha before we left that her lack of armpit hair would mark her as a tourist, but I haven't observed any woman yet who deviates from Canadian or American practice in that area.

A Few of My Favourite Things

Since we are currrently in Austria, the title of this post is referring mainly to schnitzel with noodles (although I am also partial to crisp apple strudel). As a diversion from our solitary travels, we spent the day yesterday with my wife's cousin at their chalet near Salzburg.

The big revelation for me in this part of the trip has been the affinity that Austrians have for Lederhosen. The owner of the alpine restaurant where we ate lunch had a traditional pair, but our twentyish waitress also had on a pair of leather shorts (in a somewhat more groovy style). We have even seen other tourists sporting this outfit.

Spelunking in Slovenia

Slovenia has one of the largest underground cave systems in the world, and the most prominent among these are the Skocjan Caves. These are an easy 45 minute drive from downtown Ljubljana, but don't seem to be promoted very aggressively. Nonetheless, we drove out to visit the caves today, and they are truly spectacular. Photography is not allowed in the caves proper, but even a photo from near the entrance gives some hint of their size.

The Reka River disappears underground at the entrance to the caves, and runs underground almost as far as the Adriatic before emerging again. This view is from just outside the cave at the point where the river enters. The high ground forms the roof of a 100m high cavern.

More on the caves here - http://www.park-skocjanske-jame.si/eng/skocjan-caves-park_caves.shtml